The TouchWiz Nature UX 2.0 from the S4 Mini is what's painted over Android 4.2.2 on the Zoom, with a bit of photography apps thrown in like Photo Suggest or a Video Editor, which will probably make it to the final edition too. There is not much else to this popular Samsung interface, so you can refer to our S4 Mini review for the nitty-gritty if you are unfamiliar with it, as the big changes are only in the camera app, which we will preview in a bit.

The only gripe we have with the UI is that a dedicated landscape mode isn't included, like on the recent Galaxy Mega 6.3, and a cameraphone that will be often used in a landscape position would really make a good use out of it.

Processor and memory

A 1.5 GHz dual-core Exynos 4212 processor with Mali-400 GPU is what's powering the Galaxy S4 Zoom, aided by 1.5 GB of RAM, and the phone also hosts 8 GB of internal memory, plus a microSD slot for expansion. This chipset is nothing to write home about in terms of benchmarking prowess, but does the job of running Jelly Bean, apps and the camera interface sufficiently quick with barely a perceivable lag.

Browser and connectivity

The TouchWiz browser is well-known to be a pretty fast renderer by now, and doesn't disappoint here as well, letting you sideload Adobe Flash if needed. The S4 Zoom has both LTE and HSPA+ versions, with the HSPA+ speeds hitting 21.1 Mbps, if your carrier can supply that. Other than these radios, we get Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS and NFC but no FM Radio. There is also an infrared sensor at the top of the phone, so you can control your TV, home stereo and the like with the phone's dedicated app.

Yes they should. Problem is that they DON'T have any design team. Havent you heard? Since 2007 Shamesung hired only industrial spies and those who are familiar with photoshop and can edit other OEM designs.

Its odd that there are so many comments about how a camera looks (which is a matter of opinion) rather than how well it works. I doubt anyone will look at a Cannon and comment "that is ugly." Has anyone ever discussed how beautiful the design of a camera is or do they discuss how beautiful the photos are? Its a camera with android functionality. I guess if you're one of the 15 people in world concerned with how your camera looks, this isn't for you.

I don't like it. Too much design compromise for camera usage that camera phone experience is ruined. The Nokia N8 and 808 manages to be the best in class without too much sacrifice with the phone side(I wished that these two run on Android and it will be perfect.).

Sammy is playing game of one upmanship... Trying to beat both nokia and sony in bringing this phone first to market.... Sadly its gonna hurt them bad... They tried same with announcement of ATIV last year, tried to outdo nokia...

Sammy is playing game of one upmanship... Trying to beat both nokia and sony in bringing this phone first to market.... Sadly its gonna hurt them bad... They tried same with announcement of ATIV last year, tried to outdo nokia...

Samsung tried to be first in everything in something that they are not good at, and camera in phones is one of them (in fact, i dont think there is anyone who will mention Samsung when you bring up the topic of digital cameras). First isnt necessarily the best. Samsung rushed ahead and announced the first windows phone 8 device, and guess what, it's selling worse than HTC 8X, let alone Nokia's Lumia phones.

A bad move by Samsung really. Too much compromise is done just to emphasize the camera part of the device. Really now? And worse, they even incorporated the S4 name! By doing so, they are damaging the reputation of the "Galaxy S" line of products which is usually state-of-the-art and well-thought premium devices by Samsung. So far, Samsung has been releasing good Galaxy S products... until now. This one looks just like an ordinary smartphone slapped with optical zoom camera and xenon flash at the back in a rushed decision and then release it without further balancing some of the elements on the phone side.

You have to be a hardcore Samsung fan to buy this. This one looks ugly, let's face it. This is what happens when you are in a hurry and don't spend time perfecting your products. They think that because people are mad about the Galaxy line, they thought everything they release would sell like hotcakes, hence they no longer spend time making their products beautiful.

Seriously, this one hardly has the qualities of a "Galaxy S" product to begin with.

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